The system special folders are folders such as Program Files, Programs, System, or Startup, which contain common information. Special folders are set by default by the system, or explicitly by the user, when installing a version of Windows.

The GetFolderPath method uses these enumerated constants to designate the special folder path to retrieve.

For more information about special folders, see the CSIDL Values topic at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/Shell/reference/enums/csidl.asp.